Underwater electrical connector



Oct. 27} 1970 Q 7 .5, N N 3,537,062 I UNDERWATER ELECTRICAL CONNECTORFiled July 15, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN l/E N TOR SHALE. J. NISKIN Z/mlz147% v Oct 27,1970 5, I I 3,537,062

UNDERWATER ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR Filed July 1s,v 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet znited States US. Cl. 339-60 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Anunderwater electrical connector consisting of a male and female memberthat interlock upon sliding one into the other, the female member havinga contact member enshrouded by insulation with an opening and a slotcommunicating with the opening extending through the insulation andcontact member; the male member having a contact member of the same sizeand configuration as the opening in the female member and a support forthe contact member with insulation enshrouding a portion of the supportwhereby upon interlocking the male and female members the contactmembers become impervious to moisture and the like.

This invention is related to underwater electrical connectors and ismore particularly directed to a self purging type connector.

This invention is an improvement on the underwater connectors shown anddescribed in my copending application No. 649,726, filed on June 28,1967, now Pat. No. 3,489,987, for Underwater Electrical Connector. Theconnectors of my copending application and of the instant patentapplication are alike in that they are insulated, interlocking,self-purging and intended primarily for connection underwater, but aredissimilar in that the first named connector is self-mating while theconnector of the instant application is not.

Therefore, the principal object of the present invention is to providean underwater electrical connector consisting of male and femaleportions which interlock to form an interlocking electrical connector.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an electricalunderwater connector having interlocking parts which are insulated andupon connecting the interlocking parts together, the connector becomesimpervious to water.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an underwaterelectrical connector having male and female portions which purge thewater from the connector by a wiping action upon connecting theunderwater electrical connector together while underwater.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an underwaterelectrical connector having a plurality of male and female terminalsthat interlock and serve to purge the connector of water when theterminals are brought into interlocking position when the connection ismade underwater.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide anunderwater electrical connector having a plurality of male and femaleterminals that lie in a circle that become interengaged upon sliding themale terminals along the female terminals thereby purging the femaleterminals of water as the terminals make electrical contact with eachother.

With these and other objects in view, the invention atent will be bestunderstood from a consideration of the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part of thisspecification, with the understanding, however, that the invention isnot confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawingbut may be changed or modified so long as such changes or modificationsmark no material departure from the salient features of the invention asexpressed in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an underwater electrical connectorconstructed in accordance with my invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are longitudinal cross sectional views taken in planesdegrees apart.

FIG. 4 is an exploded view of my connector.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are perspective views of the male and female portionsforming the terminals with the insulation removed therefrom.

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view showing an alternate construction ofmy underwater electrical connector having a plurality of terminalsforming a multiple connector.

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 88 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an exploded view of my multiple underwater electricalconnector.

FIG. 10 is a similar view showing a further alternate construction of mymultiple underwater electrical connector with the female connectorpartially broken away.

FIG. 11 is a side elevation of a still further alternate construction ofmy multiple underwater electrical connector.

FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 1212 of FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the male portion of the connector.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the female portion of the connector.

Referring to the drawings wherein like numerals are used to designatesimilar parts throughout the several views, the numeral 10 refers to myunderwater electrical connector consisting of two parts, namely, a maleportion M and a female portion F which interlock to form the connectedconnector 10.

The male portion M consists of a fiat terminal base or support member 11upon which a cylindrical shaped terminal post 12 is mountedlongitudinally thereon. The base member 11 is connected to an insulatedelectrical conduit 13 by a collar-like member 14 to efiect a goodelectrical connection between the electrical conduit 13 and the maleconnector 12. The base member 11 and collar 14 are enshrouded by acylindrical shaped covering 15 of insulation such as rubber and thelike, while the terminal post 12 and a small part of the base member 11remain uncovered by the insulation 15 and extend above the top surface18 of the insulation 15. At the ends of the terminal post 12 and of thebase member 11 that extends above the body of insulation 15, insulationmembers 16, 16 are mounted having the same configuration or crosssectional shape and size as the terminal post 12 and base member 11. Forconvenience the insulation tapers at 17 in the direction of theinsulated wire 13.

The female portion F of my underwater electrical connector 10 consistsof a terminal base or support member 20 similar to the base member 11and having a collar 21 at its lower portion at which position aninsulated electrical conduit 12 is connected much in the same manner asin the male connector M. On the top edge of the base member is acylindrical member 23 lying longitudinally of the base member 20 andhaving a hollow portion and slotted along its full length as at 247 Theslot 24 is coplanar with the base member 20 and is of the same size asthe exposed portion of the base member 11 of the male connector M. Thediameter of the hollow portion 25 of the cylindrical member 23 isapproximately equal to that of the cylinder 12 so that the members 12,11 will be slidably received by the hollow cylinder 23 and slot 24. Theterminal 23, base member 20 and collar 21 are enshrouded by acylindrical mass of insulation 26 that tapers conically as at 27 to theelectric conduit 22. The insulation 26 is provided with bores 28 thatare in axial alignment with the bore 25 of the cylindrical terminal 23and a slot 29 extending through the top surface 30 of the insulation 26.The slot 29 is aligned with the slot 24 of the cylindrical terminal 23.

This construction permits the interlocking of the male and femaleconnectors M and F when electrical contact is desired between them byfirst placing the two connectors side by side with the insulation 16 ofthe male connector M adjacent the bore 28 of the female connector F andthe base member 11 in alignment with the slot 29 while the top surfaces18 and 30 will lie in coplanar relationship. By applying a force on theouter side of the male and female connectors in a direction toward eachother, the cylindrical terminal post 12 and base member 11 will slidealong the opening 28 and slot 29 while the surfaces 18 and 30 will slidealong each other in contact relation, each of the surfaces in contacteffecting a wiping action on their companion surface to remove anymoisture or water thereon. When the male and female connectors M and Frespectively are centered on each other, the terminal posts 12 and 23will be in contact with each other making a firm electrical connection.The insulation 15, 16, 26 will prevent moisture from entering theconnector 10, so that the terminals 12 and 23 will be isolated from thewater. Since there is effected a Wiping action of the terminals 12, 23during the connecting together the male and female connectors M and Frespectively, the connection can be made under water without affectingthe proper electrical connection of the terminals 12 and 23.

It is to be noted that although the terminal post 23 is described asbeing cylindrical, it may have any appropriate arcuate shape or it mayhave any geometrical shape such as triangular, rectangular, etc. Theonly requirement that needs to he met is that the terminal post 12 andthe cavity 25 in the terminal post 23 be identical in shape and size, sothat the former may fit telescopically within the other by a sliding ofone into the other to effect the necessary wiping action which makes myunderwater electrical connector self-purging. Also, in order to preventthe male and female connectors from separating when pulling forces areapplied on the conduits 13 and 22, each of the connectors must provideshoulders that abut against each other to resist such a separation. Thefemale connector F forms shoulders at the position of the slot 24 andthe curved surface 25 which receives the shoulders formed on the maleconnector M at the position of the base member 11 and the curved surfaceof the cylindrical terminal 12.

As shown by FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, a sleeve 19 may he slidably mounted overthe interlocked male and female connectors F and M. The sleeve 19prevents the inadvertent uncoupling of the male and female connectorsand also acts as a redundant water proofing sleeve.

The alternate construction of my underwater electrical connectors 30,40, 50 consist of a male and female connector M and F respectively, eachof which have a plurality of contact terminals constructed identicallyto that shown by FIGS. 1-6 inclusive and described hereinabove.

As shown by FIGS. 7-9 inclusive, there is a multiple connector 30showing three contact terminals 31, 32 of identical construction as thatof the male terminal 12 and female terminal 23 of the single connector10 shown by FIGS. 1-6 inclusive. In this construction, the maleterminals 31 and their adjacent insulation 33 of identical configurationlie in spaced parallel planes extending above the flat wiping surface 34of the body of insulation 35. Three wires 36 extend through an insulatedcable 37 and connect to each of the male contact members 31 in the samemanner as described hereinabove. Likewise the female contact members 31lie in spaced parallel planes enshrouded by insulation 38 and formingslots 39, 41 for receiving the male contact terminal 30 and insulation33. Wires 42 in the insulated cable 43 connect to each of the femaleterminals 32 so that connector 30 is capable of connecting three linesor circuits together simultaneously. The insulation body members 35, 38are tapered in such a manner that when the male and female connectorsare connected together the combined peripheries form a cylinder of equaldiameter along its full length for receiving a sleeve (not shown)identical to the sleeve 19 shown by FIGS. l-3.

A further alternate construction of my multiple underwater connector isshown by FIG. 10. The multiple connector 10 is somewhat the sameconstruction as that shown by FIGS. 79 inclusive except that all of themale contact members or terminals 42 and adjoining insulation 43 lie ina common plane and extending above a fiat wiping surface 44 of the bodyof insulation 45. The female connector F of FIG. 10 is identical inconstruction to that of FIG. 9 except that the slots 46, 47 in theinsulation body member 48 lie in a common plane extending from the flatwiping surface 49. Adjacent each set of slots 46, 47 in the insulationbody member 48 is a cavity 51 that permits the connectors F and M to beconnected together. In connecting these connectors together, theconnectors F and M are placed together with the male con tact members 42received by the cavities 51 and the wiping surfaces 44, 49 in contactrelation. The male contact members 42 and insulation 43 will findthemselves in alignment with the slots 46, 47 so that by sliding one ofthe members M, F with relation to the other, the male and femaleterminals will contact each other as the slots 46, 47 become purged ofany moisture therein.

In FIGS. 11-14 inclusive there is shown an alternate structure of myunderwater 50 wherein each of the male and female connectors M ad F arecylindrical in shape. The male and female contact members 52 and 53 areidentical in construction to those previously described; however, inthis construction the male contact members 52 form part of the femaleconnector F while the female contact members 53 are found in the maleconnector M which consists of a cylindrical insulation member 54 withslots 55, 56 about its periphery, the number of the slots 55, 56 beingdetermined by the number of circuits connected together by the connector50. In each of the pair of slots 55, 56 is a female contact member orterminal 53 identical in construction to the female terminals describedhereinbefore.

The female connector F is provided with a cylindrical insulation bodymember 57 in which there is a coaxial cylindrical cavity 58 about whoseperiphery extend inwardly male terminals 52. The male terminals 52 haveinsulation members 59 on each side in the same manner as the maleterminals shown and described hereinabove. Wires are connected to themale and female terminals in the same manner as shown described inconnection with the other constructions of my underwater connectors. Inthe female connector body 57 water vent openings 60 that communicatewith the cavity 58 are formed so that when the male connector M isinserted into the cavity 58 of the female connector F the male terminalsand insulation 52, 59 will be received by the slots 55, 56. As the maleconnector M slide inwardly of the female connector F the outer surface61 will contact the inner surface of the cavity 58 with a wiping actionforcing water in the cavity 58 to be discharged through the openings 60.When the male connector M is being forcibly slid completely within thefemale connector F the male terminals 52 will engage and make electricalcontact with the female terminals 53. It is obvious that in all of mydifferent constructions of underwater connectors, the female terminalwill be connected to the hot side of a circuit so that when theconnectors are disconnected from each other, the male terminals whichextend beyond the insulation and are not enshrouded by insulation as thefemale terminals will not be carrying electricity. To prevent the maleand female connectors shown by FIGS. 13 and 14 from being pulled apartinadvertently when once connected together, a sleeve 62 is slid over thefemale connector insulation 57 covering the openings 57 and engaging theexposed portion of the male connector M.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. An underwater electrical connector comprising a male and a femaleinterlocking terminal, said female terminal having an electrical contactmember, said member having an axis, and opening extending along saidaxis and a slot extending along said member communicating with saidopening, said slot being substantially smaller in size than said openingforming shoulder portions, insulating means enshrouding said electricalcontact member and terminating in a substantially flat surface inparallel relation to said axis, said insulating means having openings inalignment with said axial opening in said contact member and a slotextending to said fiat surface in coplanar relation with said slot insaid contact member, said male terminal having a support member, a malecontact member mounted on said support member, said male contact memberhaving an axis and a cross sectional configuration substantially equalin size and shape as that of said opening in said female contact member,further insulation means enshrouding a portion of said support memberspaced from said male contact member and terminating in a fiat surfacesubstantially parallel to said axis of said male contact member, thedistance between said first named fiat surface and said axis of saidfemale contact member being substantially equal to the distance betweensaid second named flat surface and said axis of said male contactmember, and still further insulation means having the same configurationand size as said male contact member positioned on each side of saidmale contact member in axial alignment thereto whereby said male contactmember and said support member are telescopically received by saidopening and said slot respectively of said female terminal and effectinga wiping action and said fiat surfaces of said insulation means of saidmale and female interlocking terminals engage each other and saidunderwater electrical connector becomes impervious to moisture and thelike.

2. The structure as recited by claim 1 taken in combination with asupport member mounting said female contact member and an insulatedelectrical conduit connected to each of said male and female supportmembers and a sleeve slidably mounted on said first named and furtherinsulating means.

3. The structure as recited by claim 2 wherein said male contact memberand said opening in said female contact member are arcuate.

4. An underwater electrical connector comprising a .plurality of maleand female interlocking terminals, each of said female terminals havingan electrical female contact member, said contact members each having anaxis, all of said axes being in substantially parallel relation, anopening extending along said axis and a slot extending along said membercommunicating with said opening, said slots being substantially smallerin size than said opening whereby shoulder portions are formed in eachof said female contact members, insulating means enshrouding saidelectrical contact members and terminating in a substantially flatsurface in parallel relation so said axes, said insulating means havingopenings in alignment with said axial opening in said contact membersand slots extending to said flat surface in coplanar relation with saidslot in said contact members, said male terminals having a plurality ofsupport members, a male contact member mounted on each of the supportmembers, said male contact members having an axis and a cross sectionalconfiguration substantially equal in size and shape as that of saidopening in said female contact members, further insulation meansenshrouding a portion of said support members spaced from said malecontact members and terminating in a fiat surface substantially parallelto said axes of said male contact members, the distance between saidfirst named flat surface and said axes of said female contact membersbeing substantially equal to the distance between said second named flatsurface and said axes of said male contact members, and still furtherinsulation means having the same configuration and size of said malecontact members positioned on each side of said male contact members inaxial alignment thereto whereby said male contact members and saidsupport members are telescopically received by said openings and saidslots respectively of said female terminal effecting a wiping action andsaid flat surfaces of said insulation means of said male and femaleinterlocking terminals engage each other whereby said underwaterelectrical connectors become impervious to moisture and the like.

5. The structure as recited by claim 4 wherein said female terminals aremounted on said first named insulating means and said male terminals aremounted on said further insulating means.

6. The structure as recited by claim 5 wherein said male and femaleterminals are mounted in substantially spaced and parallel relation.

7. The structure as recited by claim 5 wherein said male and femaleterminals are mounted in spaced and coplanar relation and said firstnamed insulating means having a cavity adjacent each of said femaleinterlocking terminals for receiving said male interlocking terminals.

8. An underwater electrical connector comprising a plurality of male andfemale interlocking terminals, each of said male terminals having anelectrical female contact member, said contact members each having anaxis, an opening extending along said axis and a slot extending alongsaid member communicating with said opening, said slots beingsubstantially smaller in size than said opening whereby shoulderportions are formed, insulating means forming a cylinder enshroudingsaid electrical contact members, said insulating means having openingsin alignment with said axial opening in said contact member andperipheral slots in coplanar relation with said slot in said contactmembers, said female terminal having a plurality of support membersmounted about in a circle, a male contact member mounted on the innerends of said support members, said male contact members having a crosssectional configuration substantially equal in size and shape as that ofsaid opening in said female contact members, further cylindricalinsulation means enshrouding a portion of said support members spacedfrom said male contact members whereby said male contact members andsaid support members are telescopically received by said openings andsaid slots respectively of said male terminal effecting a wiping actionand said insulation means of said male and female interlocking terminalsengage each other whereby said underwater electrical connectors becomeimpervious to moisture and the like.

9. The structure as recited by claim 8 wherein said further cylindricalinsulation means as provided with openings for venting said femaleconnector as said male connector is slid into said female connector anda sleeve 8 s lidab1y mounted over both said insulation means and FOREIGNPATENTS coveringsaid openings 1,178,912 10/1964 Germany.

66,587 9/1913 Switzerland. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner 295 559 3/1884 Kitson 339 247 J. H.McGLYNN, Assistant Examiner 2,741,748 4/1956 Ensinger. U C Cl. X.R.3,214,725 10/1965 De Rose et a1. 33975, 117

